156 PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 



"One has almost the certair^ty of getting many double flowers, as soon 

 as one of the crossed species has become double, and in no wise was 

 the doubleness of both parents necessary, as many gardeners believe." 

 (ib., p. 45.) . 



"Two plants with half-double flowers often furnish hybrids with very 

 double or completely double flowers ; but extremely seldom does the 

 case occur where two species with single flowers produce in the imme- 

 diately following progeny hybrids with double flowers." (ib., p. 46.) 



With respect to color, Lecoq remarks : 



"Most ordinarily, colors mingle, mix and fuse through hybridization 

 just as though one had put them together in a palette, and there arises 

 therefrom a middle or half tint ; but with many genera they do not fuse, 

 but remain separate, and appear as variegations on the corolla, as for 

 example in the morning-glory, tulip, etc. ; in stripes as in the aster ; 

 in flecks or clouds as in many varieties of Dahlia; in peripheral mark- 

 ings or borderings, as in some auriculas, primulas, etc." (ib., p. 47.) 



Coming to matters of detail u^ith respect to the crossing of 

 plants in different families, there are a number of interesting re- 

 marks which deserve to be noted. In discussing the family of the 

 Cruciferae, Lecoq refers to the case of a cross by Sageret between 

 a cabbage and a black radish, the latter serving as the seed parent. 

 This hybrid is reported to have had two types of shoots, one super- 

 posed over the other, and both entirely distinguishable through 

 their form, one being like that of the cabbage, and the other re- 

 sembling the radish. This appears to be an interesting case of 

 factor-mutation in somatic cells. Lecoq mentions the further case 

 of a sectorial chimaera in Dianthus harhatus, which sometimes, 

 as he says, shows "variations" in which flowers of different color 

 occur not only on the same plant, but in the same inflorescence, 

 white and red flowers being immediately juxtaposed. His view 

 is as follows : 



"plants which show these characters are hybrids, and confirm an ob- 

 servation made long since by Sageret, which my experience also verifies, 

 that one frequently gets hybrids which do not stand in the middle be- 

 tween father and mother, but appear to have taken on some organ or 

 other completely from the one and from the other, respectively, and 

 without any modification at all. I should at least scarcely know how to 

 explain the appearance of different colored flowers upon the same plant 

 in any other manner." (p. 117.) 



In discussing the Leguminosae, Lecoq speaks of the crossing of 

 alfalfa, and alludes to the undoubted probability of successfully 

 crossing Medicago sativa, or ordinary alfalfa, with Medicago 

 lupulina or Yellow Trefoil, but remarks: 



